Katie: The Daughter Of by EM Green

A clever, thought-provoking, and unpredictable story of life as the teenage daughter of a grim reaper, Katie: The Daughter Of by EM Green is an original YA adventure.

Katie Death is used to her father being Immortal, and technically dead, but after countless moves, she is ready to find some sense of normalcy and connection. This amusing high school drama is predictable in certain ways – the struggles of fitting in, developing a crush, finding a tribe – but Katie also has to deal with the cosmic battles of good and evil that are commonplace under her roof. Bolstered by a whimsical cast of secondary characters, including James and Susan, Katie’s perfectly bizarre parents, every chapter is a lively burst of wit and plot development, keeping the momentum going throughout.

The relationships that evolve in this story are surprisingly complex, tender, and insightful, while the bursts of humor makes this an easy and fun read, despite the occasionally heavy, and even profound, subject matter. The writing is clearly aimed at younger readers, and can be somewhat heavy-handed at times, particularly when dialogue is used to drive the plot forward, or elicit a big reveal of information. There are also some basic grammatical errors and mismatched tenses that an editor could easily rectify.

While a bit more polish and some smoothing of conversational edges would make this rough diamond shine, Katie: The Daughter Of is inventive, humorous, and deeply meaningful work of YA fiction.